SDK Issues - UI Sections and Notifications

[vincepg13]

Hey team, I have noticed a couple issues when using the SDK to build and deploy scoped applications, related to UI sections and notification records:

Notifications

I noticed when notifications are deployed through the SDK, any none breaking space characters become visible in the html.

For example here is the html field of a notification created on the instance:

And here is the corresponding now.ts file created after running a transform:

import { EmailNotification } from '@servicenow/sdk/core'

EmailNotification({
    $id: Now.ID['92e1e8313bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45ade'],
    table: 'x_bskyb_sbt_sdk',
    name: 'Test SDK Email',
    category: 'b278840c1bf5f9d8dfca1f89bd4bcb9f',
    triggerConditions: {
        generationType: 'engine',
        onRecordInsert: true,
        onRecordUpdate: false,
        condition: 'order>5000^EQ',
        item: 'event.parm1',
    },
    recipientDetails: {
        recipientUsers: ['e08f0920db9a37c8c186399ffe961935'],
        excludeDelegates: false,
        isSubscribableByAllUsers: false,
        sendToCreator: true,
    },
    emailContent: {
        messageHtml: `<p>This is a test</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>For none breaking space characters</p>`,
        template: '7ed0481f3b0b2200c869c2c703efc487',
        includeAttachments: false,
        omitWatermark: false,
        pushMessageOnly: false,
        forceDelivery: false,
    },
})

If I now build the application and deploy it via the SDK, this is what the HTML field now looks like on the notification:

If you view the source HTML now, you can see the "&" in the nbsp character from the notification has been replaced with "&amp" despite the fact it does not appear that way in the now.ts file

I expect the SDK is transforming it during the build process but it then has the affect of appearing in the actual email. For now I have a workaround for this by having a post build script that strips any instances of "amp;" out of notification records and sets them back to "&".

But this affectively makes it very impractical to use the SDK with any application that contains notifications

UI Sections:

Whenever I make a change to a form layout on the instance and run a transform, the SDK appears to append the changes onto the end of the corresponding sys_ui_section now.ts file instead of replacing it. This means the next time you build and deploy the application via the SDK, you can end up with duplicate fields in that UI section.

Here for example is a simple form layout:

And the corresponding now.ts files code

import { Record } from '@servicenow/sdk/core'

Record({
    $id: Now.ID['d63660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a45'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.begin_split',
        position: 0,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.begin_split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['923660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a46'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: 'title',
        position: 1,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['5e3660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a46'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.split',
        position: 2,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['1a3660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a47'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: 'order',
        position: 3,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['d23660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a48'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.end_split',
        position: 4,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.end_split',
    },
})

If I now go onto the instance and make a change to the layout, say for example swap the title and order field, then run a transform, this is now the code in the same now.ts file:

import { Record } from '@servicenow/sdk/core'

Record({
    $id: Now.ID['d63660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a45'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.begin_split',
        position: 0,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.begin_split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['923660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a46'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: 'title',
        position: 1,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['5e3660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a46'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.split',
        position: 2,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['1a3660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a47'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: 'order',
        position: 3,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['d23660b13b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45a48'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.end_split',
        position: 4,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.end_split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['e9c628353b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45ae4'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.begin_split',
        position: 0,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.begin_split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['a5c628353b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45ae5'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: 'order',
        position: 1,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['61c628353b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45ae6'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.split',
        position: 2,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.split',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['2dc628353b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45ae6'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: 'title',
        position: 3,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
    },
})
Record({
    $id: Now.ID['e5c628353b73fe50db3e0f1a85e45ae7'],
    table: 'sys_ui_element',
    data: {
        element: '.end_split',
        position: 4,
        sys_ui_section: '522320753bffbe50db3e0f1a85e45a9b',
        type: '.end_split',
    },
})

As you can see it is now about twice the length due to the new layout from the instance essentially being appended onto the end of the file. If you now build and deploy the application, and visit that same form, it looks like this:

To work around this currently I need to make sure I first delete any sys_ui_section now.ts file I modify on the instance before running a transform, which is not ideal.

[sonisoft-cnanda]

For the HTML field, have you tried using an include instead of having the content directly in the fluent? (Now.include) and then keeping that in an html file? Just wondering if the escape/characters would be processed properly?

(Still a problem of course, just wondering about a work around)

[vincepg13]

Just gave that a try, same issue unfortunately!

[bryce-godfrey]

Forms are a problematic type due to sys_ui_sections as you have found out, the instance installer handles them in a special way that conflicts with using the Record API here. The official Form API is coming in the 4.6 release this week, so I will suggest you just wait for that instead of trying to debug this more.
For the HTML issue, we have someone looking at that now so should get something fixed for that asap.